President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday told the European Union Observer Mission (EOM) to Nigeria’s elections starting in February, that he was impressed by the preparations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the landmark polls.
He was optimistic that INEC would deliver on its mandate of conducting credible elections.
Buhari, who received the EOM led by the chief observer and member of the European Parliament, Maria Arena, at the State House, Abuja, said that he had earlier yesterday listened to INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, when he briefed the National Council of State on the commission’s preparations for the elections.
The president, in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, said: “I am happy and impressed with the briefing he gave. I hope that the confidence he exuded and the intellect he brought to bear on the report will be justified at the end of the day.”
Buhari told the EU delegation that Nigeria had grown its electoral system incrementally and noted that it is getting better every year.
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He said: “Having participated in elections four times in the past, I would say that since 2015 technology has helped the credibility of our elections.”
President Buhari said that Nigeria with over 250 cultural groups across religions and ethnic groups, with each group canvassing for identity and primacy in the affairs of the nation, “patriotism demands that we identify the nation’s best interest and go with it.”
He stressed that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) administration had the good sense of identifying the national interest to include security, peace and stability, improved economy, job creation and the campaign against corruption, noting that the party was not wrong in 2015, and is not wrong going into the election this year with the same issues in its campaigns.
Buhari thanked the delegation for taking interest in Nigeria’s elections, and in the affairs of the country generally.
The EOM team, accompanied by Ambassador Ketil Karlsen, head, European Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said that the EU had observed every election in Nigeria since 1999, and was here again for the next one, following an invitation by INEC.
The delegation promised impartiality and neutrality in the monitoring of the elections.
